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  • T-NZKK1 spotted this afternoon.
    T-NZKK1.JPG
    Is it one of the FR24 supplied sticks? How is that going anyway? Did anybody take contact to the weather station community?

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    • Originally posted by Kpin View Post
      T-NZKK1 spotted this afternoon.
      Is it one of the FR24 supplied sticks? How is that going anyway? Did anybody take contact to the weather station community?
      Yes, he requested an FR24 stick after I posted on a weather forum. There was also interest from someone in Tauranga but that was all.

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      • Hi guys, T-NZNV2 is now active. It'll be based here at NZNV itself long-term, at my work, but in the meantime until I get a better antenna, it'll be only on-and-off coverage (about 3 days a week) until then. Just need an MCX to pretty much anything adapter or pigtail to do the job. There's also another station down here, who got an FR24 stick, but he'll be using a discone for his antenna, and just needs to get it put up.

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        • NZDN3 here. Greetings all!

          Got my DVB-T stick (sent from FR24) set up a few weeks ago, and it's feeding data into FR24 quite nicely.
          I'm based in urban Mosgiel.

          Thought I'd sign up to the forums to see what's going on around the NZ area.

          I had the stock DVB-T stick antenna going for about a week, and then built up an 8 element coaxial collinear antenna. The stock antenna was picking up aircraft until just south of Oamaru, the Collinear antenna seems to reach out to about Timaru now... and it's still sitting inside at the window . I plan on getting it up onto the roof in the next few days, so hopefully it'll reach close to NZCH.

          Any cheap tricks/tips for a newby?

          BTW, whomever runs NZTU1 (or is it NZTU2?, can't remember... one of the Timaru stations anyway), the reach on that is very impressive!
          Last edited by NZDN3; 2013-07-09, 11:00. Reason: Inaccurate information redacted RE: NZNV station.

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          • Originally posted by NZDN3 View Post
            and possibly also down to NZNV, as there doesn't appear to be a station down there.
            Wow, someone didn't read the post immediately before their own.

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            • Originally posted by Tahii View Post
              Wow, someone didn't read the post immediately before their own.
              Apparently I may not have been on the last page of the thread, even though I thought I was. Thanks for the warm welcome, though.
              In any case, good to see some coverage further south... FR24 was getting confused and making it look like aircraft were turning around immediately over Gore.

              Comment


              • Sometimes thats the wally pilots forgetting to change the callsign on the box too. Often see the same flight number do a round trip down your parts.

                NZTU is parked way up on a hill at about 400m ASL from memory. With a high gain antenna and good cable. So yep, reaches quite a way. I looked at building a coaxial.. but went the expensive pre-made one instead. Damn you for succeeding.
                Posts not to be taken as official support representation - Just a helpful uploader who tinkers

                Comment


                • Originally posted by Oblivian View Post
                  I looked at building a coaxial.. but went the expensive pre-made one instead. Damn you for succeeding.
                  haha... was mainly being cheap as I had a bunch of RG6 lying around. There was plenty of conflicting information flying around the web as to the best way to make the collinear, and, if I'm honest, I wasn't sure if it would work at all... but it seems to be doing a great job so far, and it's not even outside on the roof yet. Will be good to see how it performs outside.
                  I plan on running RG6 to it outside; shorter is always better, of course, but how long before you get too much loss? (as a guideline?).

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                  • Have a look on amazon.com for an active USB cable (available in 10/15/20m) - put the receiver dongle in a waterproof box right by the collinear on a short coax and a long USB cable.

                    Mind you looking at the cables over 10m - they have a booster in the middle - I wonder if that is waterproof? or if it would need to go into another box or be wrapped in self amalgamating tape.

                    I put my home brew collinear in a 22mm plastic overflow pipe from a plumbers merchant - it does wave about a bit on the wind, I'm intending to see if the 22mm pipe will fit into something a bit thicker to increase the wall thickness to stiffen it.

                    Comment


                    • Originally posted by NZDN3 View Post
                      Apparently I may not have been on the last page of the thread, even though I thought I was.
                      Heh - forum did that to me with my reply actually, but I caught it being silly buggers.

                      Comment


                      • Originally posted by peterhr View Post
                        Have a look on amazon.com for an active USB cable (available in 10/15/20m) - put the receiver dongle in a waterproof box right by the collinear on a short coax and a long USB cable.
                        Aaactually, if you put the collinear into some conduit thats 10cm too long, and can get the antenna to stay in the top section, you could have the receiver itself in the bottom bit, and all the whole length of conduit would look like is a single antenna, just with a USB cable instead of coax - no waterproof box needed. Anyone tried that?

                        Comment


                        • Originally posted by Tahii View Post
                          Aaactually, if you put the collinear into some conduit thats 10cm too long, and can get the antenna to stay in the top section, you could have the receiver itself in the bottom bit, and all the whole length of conduit would look like is a single antenna, just with a USB cable instead of coax - no waterproof box needed. Anyone tried that?
                          I see there are new dongles with the antenna connection in the end, might work for them - alas mine has the connection in the side

                          I'm sure I've seen a candidate box in the kitchen with a clip on lid

                          Comment


                          • Originally posted by NZDN3 View Post
                            haha... was mainly being cheap as I had a bunch of RG6 lying around. There was plenty of conflicting information flying around the web as to the best way to make the collinear, and, if I'm honest, I wasn't sure if it would work at all... but it seems to be doing a great job so far, and it's not even outside on the roof yet. Will be good to see how it performs outside.
                            I plan on running RG6 to it outside; shorter is always better, of course, but how long before you get too much loss? (as a guideline?).
                            Not very long.. but its not as bad as RG58.

                            We calculate 5.85 dB per 100 feet at 1 GHz, the supplier says 6.15 dB

                            My LMR from auckland is meant to be about 3.6/100ft

                            Posts not to be taken as official support representation - Just a helpful uploader who tinkers

                            Comment


                            • Originally posted by peterhr View Post
                              Have a look on amazon.com for an active USB cable (available in 10/15/20m) - put the receiver dongle in a waterproof box right by the collinear on a short coax and a long USB cable.

                              Mind you looking at the cables over 10m - they have a booster in the middle - I wonder if that is waterproof? or if it would need to go into another box or be wrapped in self amalgamating tape.
                              Pete,
                              I've used one of those USB extender cables with a 'booster ' and did find it good for its purpose. However the type I purchased here in Australia has the booster at the female end of the cable with a standard male USB at the other. Neither end is waterproof so if using this type outdoors, the outdoor end would require waterproofing. Not an issue though, it would be the same as any other outdoor connection on standard coax that we use to do the job- that rubber weatherproofing tape (the name of which I forget) does a great job as you cant readily 'undo' it without destroying the tape altogether. Love the idea that seems to be the go here of wacking those receivers right up close and personal with the antenna though, great idea for reducing losses to a bear minimum. The only thing I'm unsure about is how the USB extender cable would stand up to outside sun/weather over time as coax has UV protection etc. Obviously if inside a conduit or other it would likely be fine.

                              Regards,
                              Gregg
                              Last edited by fungus; 2013-07-09, 21:29.
                              YSSY2/T-YSSY4 [SBS-1 Basestation w/- SSE-1090 SJ Mk2 Antenna (Thanks Delcomp) ] [Uniden UBCD996T w/- 16 element Wideband Discone VHF/UHF Antenna, and tuned 108MHz-137MHz Airband Antenna] [Trialing a home-brew 1090MHz collinear antenna]

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                              • Either we're about to have a 737 as a visitor, or someone's got a serious case of doing the laps...

                                DoingTheLaps.png

                                *edit* Turns out they just had a case of doing the laps. ATC confirmed NZDN has ice, and the flight took a slightly scenic route to allow time for the ice to melt.
                                Last edited by Tahii; 2013-07-09, 22:49.

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